


Face Masks

by blastingcompany



Category: The Order (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, I meant to make it gayer but got distracted, They're just gals being pals, i'm open to any further ideas abt these lovely ladies tho!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 15:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19135000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blastingcompany/pseuds/blastingcompany
Summary: Alyssa flicked her gaze over Lilith’s face, then shut her laptop. “I’m actually kind of over being productive right now. Wanna take a break?”“Spell practice?” Lilith suggested, eagerly shoving the article into her backpack.Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t know. I was thinking something that was, like, actually a break. Face masks maybe?”----Really just a wholesome piece about two gals being pals.





	Face Masks

Alyssa’s room looked just like anyone who met her would expect. Her single was laden with soft pastels and cool neutrals. A neatly arranged bulletin board hung next to a weekly planner filled out with perfect cursive. All of the furniture was simple and modern in a way that screamed expensive. It was, in a word, perfect. 

If it was anyone else’s room, Lilith would have been severely uncomfortable. Since it was Alyssa’s room, she made her peace. It wasn’t that she had anything against soft pinks or modernist furniture, it just wasn’t what she was used to. Her room was a jumble of used textbooks and mismatched decor, things she’d picked up between thrift shops and garage sales. Her books were stacked in towers on her desk, her planner went largely unused, and her roommate’s laundry was perpetually finding its way to her side of the room. An old necklace, tarnished silver with a chip of amethyst in it, was tucked into her bedroom drawer. She wasn’t much of a jewelry person, but her grandmother had promised it was lucky. Lilith felt she needed all the luck she could get. 

Alyssa was fine without luck. She was the kind of woman who could make her own fortune, but was blessed enough to be born into fortunate circumstances. She was the kind of girl who’d gone to cotillion and done ballet through ninth grade. 

Lilith was the kind of girl who’d made a hobby of breaking into abandoned buildings and pierced her own ears in middle school. She was the kind of girl flying by the seat of her pants at a university she hadn’t thought she would get into on a financial aid packet that she hadn’t expected to receive. No big difference, really. 

If the incompatibilities in their lifestyles bothered her, she tried not to let it show. Not that Alyssa would notice right now anyways. She was perched on edge of her seat, posture perfect, diligently taking notes along with whatever video her psych professor had assigned this week. Lilith was scrawling shorthand in the margins of the article her sociology professor had assigned on commercial media and sexuality, letting her annotations trail off where the text stopped engaging her. That was most of it. Whatever asshole had written the piece had chosen parched, academic diction over comprehensible language. Lilith tore a corner off of her copy, crumpled it, and flicked it at Alyssa. She startled when it hit the back of her neck, and Lilith let herself snort at her surprised squeak. Alyssa turned to scowl playfully at her. 

“You could’ve just said my name, you know.”

“What’s the fun in that?” Lilith asked. Alyssa threw the paper ball back at her face, and they both laughed at each other. 

“How’s the reading going?” 

Lilith made a face. “The author knows what he’s talking about, he’s just not making it accessible to people unfamiliar with the field. I’ve had to look up every third word.” 

“God, I hate pieces like that.” Alyssa sighed. “My poli sci professor assigned the  _ worst  _ intro reading to normative theory and I thought I was going to have to put it through a shredder. It’s like, why write something if you aren’t making it so that your readers understand what you’re talking about?” 

“Right? Fuck academia.” 

“Fuck academia,” Alyssa agreed, nodding sagely. She flicked her gaze over Lilith’s face, then shut her laptop. “I’m actually kind of over being productive right now. Wanna take a break?” 

“Spell practice?” Lilith suggested, eagerly shoving the article into her backpack. 

Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t know. I was thinking something that was, like, actually a break. Face masks maybe?” 

Lilith scrunched her nose dubiously at her. 

“Come on,” Alyssa whined. “It’ll be fun. I promise.” 

“Fine, fine,” Lilith relented as if there was ever any doubt that Alyssa would get what she wanted, as if Lilith hadn’t already admitted- while very drunk and sappy- that she loved doing this kind of stuff with her. “But I get to choose which one we do this time. I didn’t care for that lavender shit at  _ all _ .”

Alyssa’s mouth split into a smile. “Deal, but I get to chose the music.” 

Lilith rolled her eyes but nodded anyways. She bent down to reach Alyssa’s skincare bin, then took her time deciding between the small collection of tubs and tubes kept there. There was the oatmeal scrub, the pink-peel, the lavender moisturizing mask (with a too-strong scent, in Lilith’s opinion), and… 

“Unicorn Tears?” Lilith said, holding up the tube and failing to stifle a laugh. “Sounds like something the Temple Magus would try to get us to use.” 

“Use them?” Alyssa scoffed. “We’re acolytes. She’d want us to go to the middle of nowhere and  _ collect _ them.” 

“Oh, of course, my apologies. How dare I forget our lowly place as freshmen.” She gently tossed the tube to Alyssa. “Let’s do this one.” 

“I have to warn you, this does have a bit of glitter in it.”

Lilith put on her best bitch face. “Fuck me up, then.”

Alyssa put on face masks much more methodically than Lilith would have ever considered to on her own. On the few occasions that she had done so by herself, she’d used sheet masks. Minimal effort, minimal clean-up. They were fun, easy, and usually impulse-buys that she’d never thought twice about. Alyssa, on the other hand, was  _ selective.  _ Anything she bought did exactly what she wanted it to and did it very well. The masks were all in tubes or pots, and their mixtures were scooped or squeezed out onto a small white dish. Silicon brushes swirled across the masks and were then applied evenly and delicately to their entire faces. The process was comfortably silent in the way that you’re only really able to be around people you love. It could almost be described as meditative, but she’s not sure that painting her face with strawberry-scented aquamarine goop counted as meditation. 

So, it’s not what Lilith would have thought to do alone, but it was still pretty nice. Maybe it was even better just because it was with Alyssa. 

Lilith instinctively gawked at her own sentimentality. Enough of that. 

She turned to Alyssa. “You look like a smurf.” 

Alyssa raised an eyebrow at her, barely visible beneath the mask. “Then you look like a smurf that’s at a rave.”

“You look like a smurf that’s at a rave and got jumped by a bunch of pixies.” 

“It was  _ your _ decision to do a face mask with glitter in it,” Alyssa giggled, waving her mask-brush at her. 

“I severely underestimated the amount of glitter in the mask.” Lilith admitted.

“It’s called ‘Unicorn Tears,’ Lil. That practically screams ‘obscenely sparkly.’” 

“Okay,  _ maybe _ I should have seen it coming.” She stretched up to Alyssa’s desk to grab the tube back. “But why’d they need to put so much in it? What’s the mask supposed to do anyways?” 

“It’s supposed to be brightening.” Alyssa explained mildly, examining her handiwork in the mirror on her desk. Lilith flopped back onto the ground. 

“ _ Unicorn tears: formulated with everything your skin needs for a magically dewy complexion _ ,” Lilith read off the back, voice high and breathy for dramatic effect. She snorted a little at the end.  Alyssa’s mouth quirked up at the sound, as if Lilith’s amusement triggered her own. Warmth bubbled between them, quietly appreciated on both ends. 

Lilith was grateful for Alyssa more than anything in that moment. Everything felt so new to her- college, magic, face mask buddies- but Alyssa made it feel natural. Alyssa wasn’t flawless, and the effortless poise she aimed for was often, privately, less than effortless. Still, she made it feel perfect. Whatever flaws she had complemented Lilith’s. Push and pull, stop and go, day and night, they worked together like a dream. Alyssa had thanked her before for helping her navigate the Order, but Lilith could thank her for the same. She doesn’t know if she’d have wanted to stick around if Alyssa hadn’t made her feel like she belonged there. 

“Hey, Alyssa.”

Alyssa hmmmed absently, inclining her head toward Lilith without turning fully. She looked ridiculous. Her blonde hair stuck awkwardly out of a messy bun; blue goop covered her face; the grey sweatshirt she wore was three sizes too large and covered with stains. Lilith never wanted her to look any other way. Hell, she’d consider putting up with her own quickly-drying face mask if it meant she got to live in this moment- or others like it- forever. 

“Love you,” she said, letting the words slip off her tongue. She’d meant it for a while. It wouldn’t hurt to say it, not when she already knew what Alyssa would say back. 

She looked up, smiling this time. Her eyes sparkled warmly. “Love you too, Lil.” 


End file.
